Three dimensional (3D) printing is used to make a solid object of desired shape using a 3D model. 3D printing also known as additive manufacturing is a process in which successive layers of material are laid down as per the shape of the 3D object to be formed.
Typically, a designer creates a digital model of a part to be printed using any known object modeling software or computer aided design (CAD) software. After the 3D model is created, a print operation of the part may be initiated using a suitable 3D printer. Some 3D printers are capable of printing relatively large parts, while others are capable of printing parts with complex geometries.
Generally a manual process is used to screen a large number of the parts in order to identify the parts suitable for additive manufacturing. The manual process is used because of difficulty in integrating information from multiple data sources needed to perform the screening. Also, due to a qualitative nature of some of the data used in the screening manual inspection and selection of the parts may be required. This manual process may be laborious and time consuming. Further, this process relies on expertise of personnel performing the screening operation. Accordingly, it may be difficult to screen through each of these parts to arrive at a smaller pool of parts fit for additive manufacturing, leading to inaccuracies in the selection of these parts. Additionally, the manual process may require review every time the 3D model of the part is updated.
U.S. Published Application Number 2015/0205544 describes a system and method for routing object data that defines a 3-dimensional (3D) object to a 3D printer. The networked system is capable of effortlessly routing a 3D object model to one or more 3D printers capable of printing the 3D model. The object data is received at a server and object attributes associated with the object are determined. The system determines a printability indexer for identifying the object attributes and searching a database for one or more 3D printers capable of printing objects that possess the determined object attributes. If one or more capable printers are identified, the server communicates a list that identifies the one or more capable printers to a user. The printability indexer determined by the system is used to identify a suitable 3D printer from a network environment based on attributes of the object. However, the system does not evaluate a feasibility of 3D printing of the object.
Hence, there is a need for an improved method to identify and/or evaluate the parts suitable for additive manufacturing.